6:30: Morning all, I’m still sick, I couldn’t sleep, and I haven’t eaten so I’m in a rotten mood, plus Everton are beating WBA handily in the early game, which would leave us just 1 point off 6th place ahead of the match. Scoring goals is absolutely imperative here: another 0-0 draw would really put pressure on the team.
Fortunately, it looks like the boss is aware of that and has included some surprises in the starting lineup:
Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Gallas, Clichy, Arshavin, Denilson, Diaby, Nasri, Van Persie, Vela. Subs: Fabianski, Ramsey, Song Billong, Djourou, Bendtner, Eboue, Gibbs.
Lessee, we got Arshavin, Diaby, Nasri, van Persie, and Vela gets a start… I LIKE IT! That’s an attacking lineup if I ever saw one.
6:40: Allright, this isn’t fair. I want to hate Martin O’Neill but when the man offers to have the team eat dinner with the fans who traveled to Moscow to watch the Villa crap-fest, it’s very hard to dislike him.
6:45 Wenger big ups Future England #1. I hadn’t really thought about it but he is in top form right now. It was only, what, a month ago that people were calling for Wenger to sign a “real keeper” and now he’s at the top of the heap really. Strange season.
7:03 Kickoff, UP THE ARSE!
7:04 Clichy plays AJ onside and the diminutive striker nearly puts a shot on goal. GET IN THE GAME GAEL — the last thing we need is to go down 1-0 against this team.
7:07 Nasri shows some graft and gets a foul for his trouble. If that’s a foul, I expect Arsenal to get 100 free kicks in this match.
7:11 Very troubling start as in the first 8 minutes Fulham really could have scored three goals. The back four look very shaky. Credit to Fulham, they are attacking.
7:13 Make that 4 goals. Looks like Fulham has found a new wrinkle on the Arsenal high line and intend to make us pay for our ball-holdery, high line, attacking wing-back football. I’m officially worried.
7:22 Ref is letting Fulham get away with all kinds of fouls in the middle.
7:28 Etuhu is dominating the midfield. Combined with Danny Murphy and Fulham are getting the ball forward at nearly every opportunity and taking the ball away when we do get sight of posession. Funny, but this Fulham reminds me a lot of the invicibles.
7:33 Would anyone be surprised to see a 55-45 possession split in favor of Fulham? Arsenal can’t seem to win the ball back.
7:37 Clichy’s nightmare game continues — he seems totally out of the game as he lumbers back on defense allowing the dreadful Zamora to get in a cross that should have been a goal. The only bright spot right now is the play of Arshaviour who has created some really good opportunities that van Persie has squandered.
7:44 Hey, I have those exact boots. They are really nice and I got a great deal on them via Amazon.
7:48 Fulham have settled back down and are playing to their level again. I expect the second half to start and finish a lot like the first: Fulham will come out looking to steal a goal and play solid defense. What’s Wenger going to do on the 60th minute to break this?
8:08 Second half kicks off and the only changes are for Fulham who change their beard for a stool.
8:12 Free kick in a dangerous spot. Come on Robin, if you want to play for a Champions League team, don’t just bitch about it, make it happen.
8:13 WEAR A CONDOM, MATT! Christ, Arsenal are crap from set plays. Maybe Jet Pinoy Gooner is right, since we suck ass at set plays maybe Arsenal should start taking long range shots?
8:17 Brief spell of attack from Arsenal, but our wing-backs service is pathetic, as Sagna and Clichy ping-pong the ball back and forth between them.
8:20 Corner. Wasted.
8:25 Breakfast. Done. Bendtner. On. Vela. Sucked.
8:30 Take off Clichy and bring on Rambo, Arsenal’s season depends on a goal and right now Clichy is a liability offensively and defensively.
8:32 The boss brings on the Pass Master instead. 6th place here we come!
8:37 Ok, I know I’m being overly negative. The team is playing their hearts out but they just lack that last little bit of quality to put teams like this away and that’s insanely frustrating.
8:42 Arshavin is clearly unfit. Wenger needs to pull him off but the team is so bereft of options that we’re forced to play a guy who is walking on the pitch. As I write that, he gets a shot off…
8:48 5 minutes until the season is over.
8:53 This Arsenal team have given up, they can’t win the ball back. Hell, Arshavin can’t even run anymore. Which is irrelevant because even off set plays we suck.
8:56 Fulltime — Take a good look at those empty seats. That’s what’s waiting for us the rest of this season and into next. This team is not good enough and that’s all there is to it. I better not see any articles quoting van Persie as demanding Champions League football because he had multiple chances to put us on our way to securing that spot and failed miserably.
I like Vela in the starting eleven. Come on you Gunners!!!
ps whats with all the HooteRS Ads
Hey Tim.
I think the neighbors are getting suspicious with all my groaning. Yeesh.
(Had my first run in with a group of “chavs” on Tuesday at the pub. Whole bunch of them watching the United match. I had no idea they actually existed, they must have been on holiday or something.
Seriously what is with the sweat pants?)
Wife got me a new kit for my birthday today – so hopefully it will bring us some luck in the second half! (The away kit she bought me last year did the exact opposite – teams should learn not to wear white.)
Eboue’s first dive of the game
Tricky Nick with a nice roll back come on you gunners
it’s gonna be a 0-0 draw awright..i’m pretty sure bout it
Wasted Chances, an noncreative play.
This one will hurt a bit, still softish in midfield.
0-0, 0-0, and 0-0 for the next 12 games and see where we are at the end of season..6th!! horrayy..
Thank Gods I’m not in London still or I’d go on a hell of a bender right now. As it is I have to help out with the daughter, do my taxes and possibly buy a washing machine, so I’m going to need you all to live it up for me.
See you all tomorrow.
I am going to get drunk. Fucking hell. What at shit start to another depressing birthday.
what a pathetic display of football by Denilson and Diaby. i counted at least 6 passes from diaby to the wrong player and another 12 that were so bad that the receiving player had no chance winning the ball. denilson contributed nothing. he looked tired and had no ideas. short passes all day. the crossing from the wings was horrendous.
I am getting absolutely smashed hammered…when the sun goes down…around 1PM…today.
I think all blogs should stop with stories linking us to player X from team Y because we’re not going to attract anyone with UEFA Cup football. Denilson and Diaby are amateurs compared to Murphy and Etuhu – maybe now Wenger will see what experience can bring. As well as Gallas played, he could not contain Zamora. It’s a good thing Fulham had poor finishing today as well. Wenger has to spend that nice 25M profit we made to even keep half the squad playing next season. If he cannot convince the fans, the board and the team that his grand plan has some period of utter dominance then you can expect to see Cesc, RVP etc in a different team jersey in the summer. Wenger claims to have some grand plan, but anyone but him has yet to see this scheme blossoming. Maybe he’s just senile now?
At this point, I intend to worship at the altar of the ole reliable Appleton VX rum.
It has never failed to remove my misery, and after that pathetic performance I am extremely miserable.
Like Tim said, our squad is not good enough.
See you in the UEFA Cup next year folks, sans RVP.
I got up at 3AM for a nil-nil draw geez. I will probably wake up next time and we are down to 6th place and that day is just looming around. I hope I am wrong.
Wenger has been on the job too long. Time to leave and take on a different challenge Arsene. He’d be perfect for the French National Team. (Except that Platini hates him and will never let him get that job)
Tim: I am not joking. Wenger’s tired ideas, inability to change and show creativity, and stubbornness are the source of the problem.
Think about this for a second: The symbol of mastermind Wenger at work: Subbing Eboue for Sagna who was our best defender and crosser up to that point. Come on….
Passes will always go astray sometimes, our attacks will be broken up more often than not, chances will be spurned and oppotunities lost – that’s football and that’s ok. This arsenal team is unbalanced not because it lacks ability or even age, leadership and ability are not age dependent. But there is i think a leadership void in this team, there’s no player with the game and character to pull this side together. The supposed leadership players we have are not at all convincing in their role, and no i don’t think van bommel is the type, he’s too divisive on his current team.
Not in a good number of seasons have i seen our midfield so easily penetrated. Where we once we able to put a choke hold on the centre of the pitch our opponents are now free to cross midfield largely uncontested, how much time and how relaxed was danny murphy all game?
Yes we are short of clinical finishers save eduardo and rvp when on his game, but a complete lack of menace in midfield from tackling to scoring allows teams to run through us at will and compress defensively to blunt our attacks. This is an enormous problem that must be addressed this summer, no longer can we rely on our current midfield by committee formations, this glaring deficiency is simply costing us too much, far too much.